Different Worlds
by Annwyd
Summary: Shizuru takes Natsuki to an onsen: once before and once after the fighting begins and ends. It's an obligatory scene, isn't it? Shizuru/Natsuki.


On the outskirts of the Fuuka area is an inn with lovely hot springs. The family that owns it often does business with Fuuka Academy, and Shizuru is inevitably the one they talk to. She's so diplomatic, and besides, it's her duty as the Student Council President.

With those duties come privileges both tangible and intangible. Shizuru invites Natsuki for a free stay at the inn time and again, and always she refuses. Finally Shizuru teases, "You must be afraid you'll melt in the hot water. I promise I'll protect you from that, Natsuki."

Natsuki glares in that cute way she has. "I have more important things to do, Shizuru."

"The owners have a new puppy," Shizuru says. She holds out a hand to Natsuki. "Let's go and see it together, shall we?"

Natsuki looks at Shizuru's smiling face, then at her outstretched hand. She hesitates. "I can spare a day," she says.

That is the first time and the first world in which they visit the hot springs. In this time and this world, they are hiding many things. Natsuki keeps her "more important things to do" close to her heart, and they keep it cold. Shizuru keeps her _most_ important thing buried in her own heart, and that secret keeps it hot and tense. There may be rumors, but no one will ever know the truth for sure--about either of them. This they are sure of. But sometimes, Shizuru can get through to Natsuki. It might take a puppy, and it always takes an outstretched hand. This time, it takes both.

Shizuru slides easily out of her robe and into the water, feeling its heat around her like an echo of the heat she feels inside her when she looks at Natsuki, still clinging to her own robe, blushing furiously despite her best attempts to hide it. "Come and relax in the water," Shizuru says. "You'll be all loosened up for another week of skipping school. You can even blame it on me, if you like." She means it more than Natsuki can imagine. Behind the easy patter of her words are truer feelings. _Stop hiding from me, Natsuki. Stop drawing away. Whatever happens next, you can blame it all on me._ But she knows that nothing will happen next, because Shizuru's sin has to remain her own.

Forcing her blush away, Natsuki slips out of her robe. Shizuru has occasion, then, to be grateful for her self-control, for it is the first time she has seen Natsuki naked, and she is impossibly beautiful. If Shizuru were a lesser woman, she would gasp and blush at the sight. But pride and practice give her the tools to avoid that, and so she only watches with a smile as Natsuki settles into the water.

"It feels nice," Natsuki says grudgingly.

"It looks nice, too," Shizuru says.

"Shizuru!"

"I mean the water, of course," Shizuru counters gracefully. It's one thing to tease, but she must always step back from the ledge when it presents itself.

Natsuki draws her knees up to her chest in that familiar guarded pose of hers (hiding her perfect breasts, but that's only regrettable coincidence). "Don't expect me to relax too much," she says. "This is only for the day."

"I've no problem so long as it's enough for you, Natsuki," Shizuru says. But a hidden part of her contemplates how little sleep Natsuki has been getting lately, and how tense she's been, and in that hidden place she hopes--

--and is rewarded. In minutes, Natsuki has drifted off to sleep, her knees sliding forward, her head tipped to one side. Shizuru can watch to her heart's content. A question stirs in her: how much dare she touch?

She reaches out to brush half-wet strands of hair away from Natsuki's shoulders. Delicately, she lowers her fingers to those smooth shoulders and caresses them, feeling the knots of unknown tension slowly loosening in the hot water. Too slowly. Shizuru could stroke the worry out of them, if she wants. And she does want. But there is a line she dares not cross. Other people may be things to be manipulated and used for her plans and her pleasure, but not Natsuki. Natsuki is someone to be treasured. Shizuru mustn't go too far.

She draws her hand away, her fingers staying steady even as she wants to shiver. Now she does let herself blush, but only for a moment. Only when Natsuki cannot see.

That is the first time they go to the hot springs. Nothing happens then. But so much happens between then and the next time they go to the hot springs. The world changes. _They_ change it, and they let the changes open them to new things.

It is two days after graduation, and Shizuru has one last chance to use her influence as the former Student Council President to secure a free stay at the inn and private use of the hot springs. This time, Natsuki looks at her with new eyes when the invitation is made. No, they are the same eyes that Shizuru once fell in love with. But this time, there is love in them as well--or at least the openness to it.

"Do you have time, Shizuru?" Natsuki asks. "You should be getting ready for university."

"I'll always have time for you, Natsuki," Shizuru says. "But you could go alone if you want. I think their dog misses you."

"No," Natsuki says. "I want to go with you." She smiles as she so rarely did before, and Shizuru's heart jumps into her throat. This time, she lets herself blush--just a little.

This is the second time and the second world in which they visit the hot springs. In this time and this world, there is nothing left to hide. Natsuki no longer steels her heart against the world, and Shizuru no longer compresses hers into a tight ball of secrets ready to explode when the wrong string is pulled. They know they love each other, even if it is an uneven love, still tottering and new in the spaces between them.

Natsuki gets into the water first now. Shizuru waits for her to be comfortable before joining her, but this time she does not wait till Natsuki is asleep to sneak her hands onto the other girl's shoulders. She does it from the start, while Natsuki is fully awake and aware.

Natsuki yelps.

It's still unfamiliar, to see and hear Natsuki _reacting_ to her like that. Shizuru draws back, suddenly hesitant.

Natsuki smiles at her. "Shizuru, your hands are cold."

"Of course they are," Shizuru says, relaxing into the water at that smile. "The water's so much warmer. So are you."

"Only because you're here," Natsuki says.

"Natsuki..." Shizuru is sure she is blushing now. But it stops mattering in an instant when Natsuki kneels before her and leans forward to kiss her. It's a kiss they still aren't ready for, not when they're both together here at the start of something new, instead of about to vanish at the end of a battle.

So Shizuru reaches behind Natsuki and squeezes, and she giggles when Natsuki reacts with a flail, and they both wait for a day when they're ready for a real kiss. It may not be this time in the hot springs, but it will be in this world.


End file.
